Jungle Book reimagined is an artistic cri de coeur

Kipling’s The Jungle Book is popular amongst creators with its adaptations frequently performed on stage. No wonder this story also inspired choreographer and director Akram Khan, whose company visited the Czech Republic after ten years. However, in his interpretation we do not experience the traditional story by Kipling about a boy named Mowgli; Khan invites us to the near future and sends Mowgli, a lost girl, into a destroyed depopulated city.

The London-based Akram Khan Company is one of the most notable innovative dance companies worldwide. Their work combines contemporary dance with Kathak, one of the eight main forms of Indian classical dance, through which dancers communicated stories from Hindu epics and mythology. AKC explores and boldly incorporates unusual and surprising forms and artists into its productions. Through these connections, the company can reach audiences around the world. Director and choreographer of Bangladesh origin, who is also its co-founder, has won numerous international dance awards for his creative work.

In 2030, Earth is struck by an ecological catastrophe. As a result of climate change, persistent rains erupted, which led to extensive flooding and a negative impact on the planet’s economic and political events. People were forced to move to higher locations, leaving cities to other inhabitants – animals. Ruined London became home to abandoned dogs that turned into wolves, laboratory monkeys and zoo and circus animals. A wolf pack created a hierarchy, headed by a Council. Mowgli, a young girl who fell from a departing raft, was saved from drowning by a whale. Bagheera, a wolf appointed by the Council, takes care of Mowgli. In her story, we discover the girl’s past beside the wild animals, their characters and bad experiences with humans. Baloo is a funny dancing bear from a circus, and Kha is a sneaky python from a zoo with strange abilities to see the future. Mowgli reveals conversations with her mother and completes the picture of ecological tragedy. In the end, everyone leaves destroyed London. Mowgli sets out to find her family and the animals leave to look for a new, higher-located home.

Ten perfectly technically equipped dancers impressively perform Khan’s choreography. Their movements tell the whole story, while the group choreographies often literally pulsate with energy and create a plastic moving object, representing the pack of wolves, a troop of monkeys and the snake Kha. In solo performances, the dancers use movement to portray the nature of individual characters. The dance component is closely connected with animations and projections made by YeastCulture.

The simple animations of animals, plants and other characters are drawn just as white outlines, which thanks to their transparency allow interaction with the live dancers. Everything is thoroughly technically connected with the front projection. For example, a dancer pulls the bowstring of a bow, which shoots an animated arrow. The back projections show different settings (demolished London, a parking lot by a supermarket, a terrarium in a zoo, a building with windows, the sea etc.). The visual component is completed by simple stage design and costumes by Miriam Buether.

The dance area is defined by curtain and back projection; the front part of the stage and proscenium are unused. The stage is covered by black flooring for dancing, complemented by four movable objects made of cardboard boxes. The costumes are functional and non-restrictive to the dancers’ movement. Everyone wears loose-fitting grey-green trousers and dark red tight tops. Muted colours illustrate the anxiety of the apocalypse. The dancers are barefoot.

A significant and essential part of the production is the sounds and music (Jocelyn Pook), using Indian motives combined with modern, sometimes electronic music. An important part is the drums and surprising accents, to which the dancers respond. The audio part of the production is supplemented with sounds of animals, machines, gunshots etc., as well as a recording of the narrator and dialogues, which complete the story and connect it to current events in the world. The performance in Brno was accompanied by Czech surtitles, but they were rather distracting. The dialogue sometimes seemed redundant – a lot was understandable through movement. The performance is for an audience over ten years old.

The Akram Khan Company’s new perspective on the story of Mowgli opens up another burning topic – and it is natural and right that contemporary artists are speaking out on it. It is cri de coeur on behalf of the younger generation – a call for respect for nature, other species and our planet.

Akram Khan Company / UK. Tariq Jordan: Jungle Book reimagined. Director and choreographer: Akram Khan, dramaturgical advisor: Sharon Clark, composer: Jocelyn Pook, visual stage designer: Miriam Buether, sound design: Garetha Fry, light design: Michael Hulls, video design and animations: YeastCulture. Performers: Maya Balam Meyong, Hector Ferrer, Harry Theadora Foster, Filippo Franzese, Bianca Mikahil, Max Revell, Matthew Sandiford, Elpida Skourou, Jan Mikaela Villanueva, Lani Yamanaka. Premiere: April 7, 2022. Based on the performance on May 18, 2024.

Alena Punčochářová, student of Cultural Dramaturgy in the theatre practice (Silesian University in Opava). Translation Tereza Planetová